The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) yesterday demanded that government allow its members, nationwide, to have special number plates carrying ‘doctor’ on their vehicles.
The newly-elected President of the association, Lawrence Obembe, made the request in Abuja while presenting his administration’s roadmap at a media briefing.
Obembe, whose administration’s objectives revolve around the need for the country to attain universal health coverage, argued that special number plates for doctors was necessary given various road accidents which called for urgent attention of medical professionals.
He said the group had called for a Medical Rescue Squad about a decade ago, which entails government providing ambulances for NMA in the states so that doctors could promptly move to wherever there is an emergency.
“The doctors can even draw roaster and quickly know that we are the one on duty to take care of these emergencies.
“For example, if there is an emergency along Lokoja road, most of the vehicles will just park off and begin to sympathise. If for example, we all have network all over the country manned by NMA, we’ll know immediately, like 999, we pick the ambulance, we pick the nurses and go to the site. And, this I think is very important.
“We are going to hammer on this later because on this, we are going to ask for plate number for doctors’ cars.
“A doctor’s car is an ambulance if there is accident. Once you are driving and you have your plate number that says you are a doctor, they wait you down and immediately you carry the patient.
“You can even do some resuscitation. People should not think that when we are asking for plate number, these doctors want to arrogate to themselves some special privileges, no! It is a responsibility that will help us to save lives and help us to make sure we keep everybody on their toes when there is an accident,” he added.
Speaking further, Obembe called for security details for doctors across the country, even as he condemned kidnapping of members by criminals.
“It seems as if the kidnappers now have eyes on doctors; this must be discouraged. If you take the statistics of the people who are kidnapped, doctors are the highest. I don’t know the reason why.
“Even the kidnappers when they are sick, I am sure they go to hospital, and we are going to treat them. We plead that government should provide police protection for doctors. It is not new; they have provided it for lawyers, the magistrates. So, let the government provides police protection for doctors,” he said.
How does a special plate number increase the humanity in you?,I don’t need to have a special plate number to stop at the scene of an accident to render help,it just comes to me naturally and if it is not in me not even a bill board will instil that feeling in me. By the way,does any body need to wave you down because of the plate number you are carrying before you attend to accident victims? And how visible will that plate number be once you are in top speed?.
Hey guys,you can do better than this please.
When sympathisers or relatives take accident or gunshot victims to hospitals they are rejected by doctors on flimsy excuses. Is it these same doctors that will stop at scenes of accidents and consider their precious cars as ambulances, simply because it carries a different plate? If the MMA president wants to improve the health care system he should look deeper into the system and remove the things that block positive attitude in doctors.